Numerous types of flooring are laid upon underlying sub floors or concrete slabs and fixed using adhesive materials. The adhesive must be spread evenly over the underlying surface prior to the placement of the covering material. For example carpets, tiles, laminate boards and roll out flooring materials are all applied over an adhesive. It should also be noted that the present invention should not be limited to flooring but can be utilised in the laying of roofing materials as well.
Typically, the adhesives are spread by hand trowel such as the one described in EP 1,018,585A1, where the persons spreading the adhesive would carry out the work on their knees. This results in the work being physically difficult and relatively slow, especially where large areas like industrial complexes are concerned.
Attempts have been made in the past to improve on this known technique but with limited success. The improvements have typically involved the trowel being able to be used whilst the person is in an upright position. Examples of these can be seen in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,982,470, 3,803,662 and 3,611,470 where the tool can either be dragged or drawn to spread the adhesive layer.
As mentioned above, these adhesive spreaders have various limitations and are not as effective as they might be. It has been noted that there is still a need to be able to reliably spread an even layer of adhesive material using non-complex machinery, which can be easily cleaned after use. Machinery known in the field uses compressors and external electrical sources to apply the adhesive and power the machinery. This has the disadvantage of lacking versatility, due to their size and weight, and as large compressors are needed to be set up before the spreader can function and many building sites where the spreader may be used do not have guaranteed electrical sources.
It would be desirable to provide a spreader which could lay a membrane or layer of adhesive material of a predetermined thickness with tolerable accuracy and which is easy to use from a standing position. It would also be desirable if the spreader had some capability to reliably and evenly distribute the adhesive material ahead of the oncoming spatula blade. A further desirable attribute would be the ability to remove excess adhesive material when required. And to do all this with a tool which is easy to maintain and clean and which requires no external input other than the driving force given by the person operating it would also be most desirable.